Erno Erb (1890 Lviv - 1943 there), Bribes

oil, cardboard, 48 × 70 cm light frame
Signed l. d.: "EErb"

Erno Erb's painting "Bribes" depicts Lviv bathed in sunlight. A genre scene, it immortalizes women selling at a stall. The bold form and vivid colors allowed the artist to capture the impression of the city's markets and stalls. "Analyzing Erb's work, connections with German Impressionism, especially with Max Liebermann, as well as with Jan Stanislawski in the type of mood were shown." (Jerzy Malinowski, Malarstwo i rzeźba Żydów Polskich w XIX i XX wieku, Warsaw 2000, p. 318) The composition focuses on the figures and their activity, the gestures, materials and surroundings create a rich story of urban life of those years. Erno Erb "operates with a large color scale, sometimes of strong intensity, painting landscapes, marketplace motifs, architectural compositions, still life and also folklore studies." (K. Majewski, Exhibition of paintings, graphics and photography by T.P.S.P. in Lviv, Gazeta Lviv. 1931, no. 221, p. 3). The virtuosity of the workmanship is added by the Divisionist technique; initiated by the Impressionists to take advantage of the discoveries of optics. Applied to the canvas, tiny, irregular flecks of pure paint merge in the eye of the viewer. This method was used more than once by Erno Erb in his work.